[Mekoloto]

In germany its saver to illegally download through usenet because you don't upload and the cost a rights owner can make is only the cost of the product and not an aribrary number of (you puloaded it and created damage of x).

It doesn't make it legal at all, it just makes it no longer interesting for IP owners to sue you.

[bmicraft]

Wasn't there a ruling like a decade ago that explicitly declared storing illegal, but streaming (download to RAM) is fine as a non-redistributing client?

Of course the rights holder would have trouble proving whether you did save it, but that's a different issue.

[Mekoloto]

Its official illegal for a while.

Nonetheless its the same thing: if they can prove you watched it, the damage is small for you and because IP holders are splittered, and you didn't just watch content of one, its probably not worth it to sue you.